We've eaten sandwiches for lunch all week, and being a little tired of them, I thought we'd run out for something quick. So I ask Channing, who is five, where she wants to eat lunch and she immediately responds with Jack in the Box.
“What do you want from there?” I ask her.
“Fried cheese. With ranch.”
I see it as my parental duty to forestall the clogging of her arteries until she is at least ten. “You can’t have fried cheese for lunch, you’ll need to pick something else.”
“Can we go to Sonic?” she asks, referring to the drive-in style fast food joint.
“Okay, what do you want at Sonic.”
“Cheese sticks. With ranch. And french fries.”
I sprained my eyes in the ensuing eyeball roll. I don't think her arteries are going to make it to ten.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Blindfolded at the Crossroads
Some days I am unsettled and disjointed. My crystal ball is murky. My faith, fate, and future are in question, if only to me. I am blindfolded at the crossroads again with no idea which path to take.
Remember the story of the gladiator who must choose between two doors? Behind one is freedom and behind the other is a lion ready to kill him. The situation is complicated by the woman who tells him which one he should choose, but even more so because he does not really know if he can trust his life to her.
We are all, I believe, like that gladiator. The choices we make are heavily influenced by those around us. What we don’t know is if the decision that they want us to make is for our benefit or for theirs. Consider a parent helping their son or daughter select classes for high school. The parent undeniably wants what’s best for their child, but other things come into play. Mom really wants her daughter to be a doctor, while dad thinks engineering is the way to go. Dad was the captain of the high school football team and wants to relive his glory days again through his son. Pragmatic Mom wants excellent grades for a better shot at college scholarships to help ease the financial burden. Can Junior and Juniorette trust their lives to that parental advice?
I find that my family is guilty too. Mom thinks it would be great fun for Reed to be in the FFA because he loves animals so much, but he’s a really a motor head. Dad wants him to learn to fly, but his backside is firmly planted in the seats of ground bound vehicles. Channing is too young for such nonsense, but Mom's pretty sure horses figure prominently in her future. Dad hides his wallet.
What advice on the future should we give? On the one hand, I wish I knew then, what I know now – that every decision from your first day of high school forward either expands or limits your choices going forward. On the other hand, what I really wish was that someone could have helped me define realistic goals – without the parental baggage – and helped me determine for myself the direction I wanted to take.
Flash forward some decades, and here I am trying to decide what path I need to take from where I now stand. I have, for many years, wandered all over the sky looking for the right place to land. Sometimes I just make a quick fuel stop as that particular airstrip doesn’t appeal to me as a long term prospect. Occasionally I do find a nice place to land and spend some time there. But invariably I get restless after a while and feel the need to move on. I’ve never really found the one place I belong. And all the helpful people around me give advice – “go here and do this, I really liked it and you will too,” or go over there and do that, I always wished I had done that.” Despite their best intentions, it is always colored with their own desires and experiences which are so foreign to my own.
So here I stand, still blindfolded, the paths into dim futures yet unseen, knowing I am the only one who can choose my next direction. My worst fear? Decision by indecision.
Remember the story of the gladiator who must choose between two doors? Behind one is freedom and behind the other is a lion ready to kill him. The situation is complicated by the woman who tells him which one he should choose, but even more so because he does not really know if he can trust his life to her.
We are all, I believe, like that gladiator. The choices we make are heavily influenced by those around us. What we don’t know is if the decision that they want us to make is for our benefit or for theirs. Consider a parent helping their son or daughter select classes for high school. The parent undeniably wants what’s best for their child, but other things come into play. Mom really wants her daughter to be a doctor, while dad thinks engineering is the way to go. Dad was the captain of the high school football team and wants to relive his glory days again through his son. Pragmatic Mom wants excellent grades for a better shot at college scholarships to help ease the financial burden. Can Junior and Juniorette trust their lives to that parental advice?
I find that my family is guilty too. Mom thinks it would be great fun for Reed to be in the FFA because he loves animals so much, but he’s a really a motor head. Dad wants him to learn to fly, but his backside is firmly planted in the seats of ground bound vehicles. Channing is too young for such nonsense, but Mom's pretty sure horses figure prominently in her future. Dad hides his wallet.
What advice on the future should we give? On the one hand, I wish I knew then, what I know now – that every decision from your first day of high school forward either expands or limits your choices going forward. On the other hand, what I really wish was that someone could have helped me define realistic goals – without the parental baggage – and helped me determine for myself the direction I wanted to take.
Flash forward some decades, and here I am trying to decide what path I need to take from where I now stand. I have, for many years, wandered all over the sky looking for the right place to land. Sometimes I just make a quick fuel stop as that particular airstrip doesn’t appeal to me as a long term prospect. Occasionally I do find a nice place to land and spend some time there. But invariably I get restless after a while and feel the need to move on. I’ve never really found the one place I belong. And all the helpful people around me give advice – “go here and do this, I really liked it and you will too,” or go over there and do that, I always wished I had done that.” Despite their best intentions, it is always colored with their own desires and experiences which are so foreign to my own.
So here I stand, still blindfolded, the paths into dim futures yet unseen, knowing I am the only one who can choose my next direction. My worst fear? Decision by indecision.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
To start with...
I'd like to be able to say that I will post reliably and regularly about things that matter. I'd like to, but I can't. I am neither reliable, nor regular (in writing, that is), and I can't imagine that eveything I post will matter to anyone but me. I can tell you this, though: I won't bore you with what I had for dinner last night, unless it is material to the topic discussed, or what I wore, or drop names, or tell you every last detail of my existance. I don't want that much information about me out in the world anyway.
My intent is to bore you with things that are either burning inside my brain, or that I thing are just too much fun not to share.
As for the title of the blog, it is almost random. I tried several different titles, but most of them were already taken, although not necessarily used. I like shadows, and clouds, and airplanes, amongst other things. I like to look up at the sky; I am utterly facinated by the never-ending movements and illusions of clouds. I like to look down and see the same movements and illusions echoed on the ground. And I like to fly. But this blog isn't about those things. Okay, sometimes it is.
My intent is to bore you with things that are either burning inside my brain, or that I thing are just too much fun not to share.
As for the title of the blog, it is almost random. I tried several different titles, but most of them were already taken, although not necessarily used. I like shadows, and clouds, and airplanes, amongst other things. I like to look up at the sky; I am utterly facinated by the never-ending movements and illusions of clouds. I like to look down and see the same movements and illusions echoed on the ground. And I like to fly. But this blog isn't about those things. Okay, sometimes it is.
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